Paul Haggis has backed up Vanity Fair's controversial article about Tom Cruise wife auditionsThe Oscar-winning director and former Scientologist has written an email to ShowBiz411.com to confirm some of the details of the article. The article claimed that the Church of Scientology held auditions for women - which they believed to be for a new training video but they were asked several questions about how they felt about Tom Cruise. The Iranian-born, London-raised actress Nazanin Boniadi eventually dated Tom Cruise for several months as a result of these auditions and was punished by the Church when she broke her silence.Paul Haggis has known Nazanin for three years and confirmed in his email that the alleged relationship between Boniadi and Cruise did in fact happen. "Naz was embarrassed by her unwitting involvement in this incident and never wanted it to come out, so I kept silent," Haggis wrote in the email. "I was deeply disturbed by how the highest ranking members of a church could so easily justify using one of their members; how they so callously punished her and then so effectively silenced her when it was done." The Church of Scientology have, unsurprisingly, denied Haggis claims and have released a statement to ABC News to say "The entire story is hogwash. There was no project, secret or otherwise, ever conducted by the Church to find a bride (audition or otherwise) for any member." They also accused Haggis of trying to "falsely slander" his former church.